


The Dragon Prince

by Bittersweet_in_Boston



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Dragons, Enchanter Bucky Barnes, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magic, Prince Steve Rogers, Spells & Enchantments, True Love, spot all the tributes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:16:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29851752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittersweet_in_Boston/pseuds/Bittersweet_in_Boston
Summary: In which Prince Steven and his best friend, a red dragon with green eyes, are enchanted by evil sorcerer Lord Pierce. As the pair journey to try to find Lord Pierce and undo the enchantment, they stumble (literally) over a mysterious dark-haired young man who also appears to be under a heavy spell...
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 7
Kudos: 34





	The Dragon Prince

**Author's Note:**

> This story has nothing to do with the animated TV show of the same name. 
> 
> CW: Some scenes of brief peril and fairy tale violence.

Once upon a time (as many fairy tales begin), there was a small kingdom, tucked away in a land of mountains and forests and lakes, ruled by King Joseph and Queen Sarah. The king and queen ruled justly, and their land was rich and prosperous. Their people loved them and were faithful. They established and maintained peaceful relationships with their neighbors. They adored each other. By rights they should have been the happiest monarchs in the world.

But they were not happy, for they had no child.

Years had gone by since their marriage, and despite all their efforts, they were still childless. They had called doctors, midwives, wise women, and councilors to help them, and these had prescribed various potions, herbs, prayers, and magic spells, all to no effect. The king and queen had begun to despair of ever producing a son or daughter, and the king had started muttering to himself about having to designate his cousin Herbert four kingdoms over as a possible backup heir.

Then one day (as many fairy tales continue), the queen was picnicking in the forest with her ladies-in-waiting and various gentlemen on a beautifully warm afternoon in early October. She had quietly resigned herself to having no children and put on a brave face, but felt a dull ache in her heart every hour of the day, always feeling that something was missing, that someone was missing. At the picnic her courtiers laughed and played games while she sat and watched them, the small smile on her lips hiding her sadness.

And then out of the corner of her eye something sparkled. As Sarah turned her head, she saw a tiny golden lizard with sparkling blue eyes. The sunlight gleamed off its skin and her eyes were dazzled. The lizard darted off into the trees and, almost without knowing why, she got up and followed it. She left so quietly and stealthily that the courtiers did not notice she was gone.

About a quarter-mile into the woods, the splendid lizard stopped at the base of a very strange, very short tree that was covered in very bright-colored berries. It then climbed up the trunk quick as a wink to one of the topmost branches, then turned and looked directly at the queen, hissed, and flicked its tongue.

Somehow Queen Sarah knew it meant her to eat one of the berries. She was not accustomed to following strange reptiles and eating unknown fruits, but she took a deep breath, plucked a berry off the closest branch, and popped it into her mouth. The taste was extraordinary - sweet and sour, warm and cool, bitter and mild, all at the same time. The queen couldn’t help smiling - a real smile of delight - as she ate it. As she swallowed it down, she felt a warmth in her stomach. The lizard’s eyes gleamed, it hissed again, and disappeared into the foliage.

A minute later she heard the calls of her courtiers as they looked for her, and she hastened back toward the clearing where the party was gathered. The queen’s ladies asked her worriedly where she’d been, but she just smiled enigmatically and said she’d gone for a short stroll among the trees to get some exercise. Soon they returned to the castle but the queen told no one, not even her husband, about the strange encounter with the lizard, preferring to ponder it within her own heart.

Nine months later the relevance of this encounter became abundantly clear. The next July, criers went about the kingdom proclaiming that the queen had been delivered of a baby boy, Steven, perfect and precious. The king and queen were beside themselves with joy and could scarcely think of anything but their little prince.

In due time, the Prince Steven was to be christened. It was a grand affair, with important guests from all over the kingdom and the neighboring realms. Nobles and other monarchs brought lavish gifts of gold and jewels, and good fairies and sorcerers chanted spells and charms over the young prince to guarantee beauty, kindness, cleverness, piety, grace, and humor. The king and queen graciously hosted the event, and the baby never cried once.

Among these guests was the Lord Pierce. He was the ruler of a small land many miles away and by repute a powerful enchanter, though no one really knew for sure because he rarely ventured forth from his manor. Indeed, King Joseph and Queen Sarah had invited him to the christening as a courtesy, but had not expected him to attend since he was so anti-social.

Lord Pierce displayed perfect manners, and bowed respectfully to the king and queen. When he leaned over the little prince’s crib, he stayed fixated on the sleeping baby a little longer than was strictly necessary, making Queen Sarah very nervous. But she allowed it, and was very gracious when the strange lord gave her a small clear crystal ball and requested, rather insistently, that it should be kept in the infant’s room. The queen thanked him politely, and as soon as he was gone she asked a courtier to go and put it in a closet somewhere. 

The day after the big event, the queen went into the royal nursery to visit the prince and saw at once that an additional gift had been left overnight. Around the baby’s neck hung a delicate but sturdy gold chain, and at the end of this chain was a solid gold pendant in the shape of a lizard, with gleaming emerald eyes. Sarah was surprised but knew in her heart immediately who had left the gift.

When King Joseph came in later and exclaimed about how strange the gift was and how unfitting it was for a baby to wear such jewelry, his wife looked him sternly in the eye and declared that the prince would wear it henceforth. And that was that.

*****

Eighteen months later, the king and queen were putting their son to bed. Prince Steven was now two years old and had become quite the handful, running and darting everywhere and speaking in two languages, English and a strange tongue that no one could identify, packed with sybillants. He constantly wore the lizard pendant and refused to take it off, even when taking his nightly bath. When it was removed he screamed until it was replaced.

Although in many ways Steven was a typical toddler, that evening the king and queen and the royal nanny were quite worn out by the prince’s energetic and enigmatic behavior and hoped he would fall asleep quickly. As they all crept out of his room, they heard a great noise from outside, as if the wings of a thousand swans were beating against the air. Shouts and screams issued forth from the surrounding area, and nearby church bells began to ring, sounding the alarm. They rushed to the main door of the castle as the guards mobilized for the approaching invasion.

And then they saw it.

It was a great dragon, emerald-eyed, covered in reddish-brown scales and roaring. And it was flying straight toward the castle as if to attack. King Joseph’s heart quailed but he kept his head, ordering his wife and the nanny to retreat, yelling to the guards, and drawing his sword. The dragon flew ever closer, and breathed fire into the sky (as dragons are wont to do) as it approached. The king stood with legs akimbo and prepared to lead the guards in a desperate attempt to defend his home.

And suddenly from between his legs, the little prince appeared and darted out into the courtyard toward the approaching dragon. Joseph reached out to grab him, but he wasn’t quick enough. Steven ran ahead thirty feet, stopped, planted his feet, and with a piercing voice, yelled a few unintelligible words up into the sky.

The dragon started, stopped short, and then gently flew down to land in front of the toddler. It approached him cautiously, but when it saw the pendant around the prince’s neck, it made a chirping sound and bowed low. The little boy took four more steps forward and put his hand on the dragon’s heaving snout, then uttered a sentence in his mysterious language. The dragon smiled and (there is no other word for it) did a little dance that shook the paving stones.

The prince turned back to his parents, who were still standing frozen in the courtyard in shock, and said to them, “This is my friend!” He then copied the dragon’s dance.

Picture it, if you will: a powerful twenty-foot-long dragon, steam still issuing from its nostrils, and a two-year-old child dancing around in the open air next to a castle while a king, a queen, a nanny, and quite 400 guards stand watching them, openmouthed in astonishment.

*****

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Instead of attacking the kingdom, the dragon became its friend and ally. It regularly visited the castle over the years and would spend hours with Prince Steven, walking around the courtyard and grounds and conversing in some strange language. When the king and queen asked their son what they discussed, he merely answered that they talked about trees and animals and mountains, and what the dragon saw in faraway lands as it looked for “something.” What this “something” was, he would never say. Occasionally it would fly the prince around the land and folks got used to seeing them soaring above houses and fields, the prince shrieking with laughter and joy.

The dragon often brought lavish gifts of gold and jewels for the king and queen from its hoard, but never brought any presents for the prince. Indeed, Steven steadfastly refused to wear any jewelry at all save the gold lizard pendant and in general dressed very simply in royal blue or navy.

And it’s fair to say that as he grew into a young man, he needed no finery, for he was as handsome as the day, almost beautiful; not very tall, but slender and strong with shining golden hair and piercing deep blue eyes. Queen Sarah privately wondered about his appearance, especially since both she and Joseph were dark-haired and dark-eyed. But she kept her thoughts to herself.

But the prince’s beauty was surpassed by his kindness and generosity to others. Even those who took issue with his strange friendship with a dragon (a dragon!) or who pointed out his occasional short temper and fiery nature could not fault his open heart and love for his people.

Steven was clever and quick to learn, though sometimes impatient, and moved gracefully with an almost animal litheness. He listened sympathetically to his people when they told him their woes, and tried his best to right injustices. Based on his ramblings around the kingdom with the dragon, he could show people where the best healing herbs could be found in the forest.

People often made assumptions when they witnessed Steven’s intelligence and plant lore and his relationship with the dragon, and it was widely whispered in the kingdom and abroad that the prince had magical powers and was somehow part wizard. And indeed Steven did possess magic of a sort, as he charmed almost everyone he met, noble and peasant, citizen and foreigner.

One person he did not charm was the Lord Pierce, who’d appeared uninvited and unannounced the night before Steven’s sixteenth birthday. Pierce had demanded to see his christening present, the crystal ball he’d left so many years earlier, and when a courtier fetched it, he’d stared into it fixedly for some minutes before turning red and all but slamming it on the table. Clearly, whatever it had shown him was not what he wanted to see.

But then Pierce had gotten hold of himself and turned to Steven. In a much suaver voice, Pierce began asking the prince all kinds of questions about himself and his lessons and that very intriguing pendant he wore. Steven, who’d had a nose for insincerity and bullshit since he was toddler, resolutely refused to play, giving the shortest possible answers to all Pierce’s questions and excusing himself as soon as he could. He had, he explained coldly to Pierce, some history to study.

The king and queen hastened to cover up Steven’s brusqueness and offered their guest more wine. But Pierce waved aside both the curt manners and the drink and told them he needed to return home, leaving the castle shortly thereafter. Both Joseph and Sarah were perplexed by Pierce’s visit, but it quickly slipped their minds in the hustle and bustle of daily court life, and the mysterious lord never frequented the castle again in the ensuing months, so they forgot all about it.

As Steven approached his twentieth birthday, his parents began to talk about arranging his marriage to a prince or princess of a nearby land, as was the custom in their family. But he begged them to wait a few months to enjoy the end of his single life. And, as Steven reasonably told them, it would take at least a few months for a royal from a different kingdom, no matter how amiable and cultured and well-traveled, to get used to the dragon.

A month or so after this conversation, just before Prince Steven’s birthday, the dragon came for a visit. It was high summer and the huge lizard and the prince were seen strolling into the woods together. That was the last anyone in the kingdom saw of them; neither returned to the palace that evening.

When the prince failed to appear at home later that night or the next day, the king and queen began to worry. What had happened? Where had they gone? Had Steven, unsettled by talk of marrying and settling down, persuaded the dragon to carry him off to lands unknown?

King Joseph hesitantly voiced this thought to his wife on the night of the second day after Steven’s disappearance, but Sarah squashed it immediately. Their son would never run off and leave them without a word, she reasoned. But she too was uneasy, and as search parties reported back to the castle that there was no sign of the prince or the dragon anywhere in the land, the queen began to wonder if her husband was right or, indeed, if something worse had befallen them.

*****

What had really happened was this. The prince and the dragon, walking in the woods and talking animatedly in their strange shared tongue, had not noticed when an unknown old man, bent and crooked with a long beard and a wooden staff clutched is his claw-like fingers, stepped into the path in front of them.

“Have you anything to eat for a poor beggar man?” he whined.

Steven immediately took a pastry wrapped in cloth out of his satchel and gave it to the old man, saying, “Here, Father, take this, and I can show you where some berry brambles grow wild nearby.” As he handed it to the old man, the latter gripped Steven’s arm and rose to a tall height, stern and forbidding.

“Give me your magic!” he shouted, eyes flashing.

The prince, startled, cried, “But Good Father, I have no magic!”

“Of course you do, stupid boy!” the old man retorted. “How else could you bewitch your people to love you? How else could you know so many spells and cures for illness? How else could you tame this beast and compel it to do your will?”

Steven was about to reply that he had no spells and could not compel the dragon to do anything, when that creature, angry at seeing its dear friend thus treated, roared loudly and began to open its mouth to threaten the old man. The old man dropped the prince’s arm, raised himself to his full height, and threw off his disguise.

“Lord Pierce!” cried Steven, and indeed it was he. Pierce pointed his staff at both young man and dragon, and called out a few evil-sounding words. A blinding flash erupted, causing both Steven and the dragon to jump backward, and the evil sorcerer disappeared.

When the prince opened his eyes, he knew something had changed. A moment ago he had felt young and strong; now he felt old and feeble. Steven looked at his hands - there were gnarled fingers instead of fresh, graceful ones. He put these hands up to his face, and felt a web of wrinkles.

_I’ve been enchanted!_ Steven thought miserably, and looked around for his friend. He saw no dragon, but on the ground near his feet stood a small reddish-brown lizard with sparkling green eyes. As he bent to look closer, it scampered up his arm and into his breast pocket. This, then, was his friend the dragon, who had also been enchanted. Oh woe!

The prince was tempted to give in to despair, but he took a deep breath and rallied his courage. He felt her neck hesitantly, and his gold pendant was still there. The lizard gave an encouraging hiss, and Steven felt a bit better. He knew that he could not return to the castle in such a state - his parents would not recognize him, and if they did they would try to move heaven and earth to set him right, and he did not want to trouble them.

So he set off through the woods, treading carefully on the paths and every now and then stopping to pick wild plants and herbs and store them in his satchel.

*****

The enchanted prince and the lizard traveled through the woods for several days, stopping regularly to eat and rest. They stayed in cottages with simple folk of the kingdom, who were happy to give shelter to such a gentle and kind old man who brought them woodland fruits and made them tinctures for their ills. Word of the prince’s disappearance had spread throughout the kingdom by this time, but everyone was on the lookout for Steven the beautiful young man, not an old codger, wrinkled and bent with age.

After three days of travel, the prince and his friend reached the border of his parents’ kingdom. It was early in the morning and the sun was just rising. Steven had no idea where to find the Lord Pierce to try break the enchantment, but his intuition told him that the evil sorcerer was no longer in his kingdom.

As Steven left his homeland, he was saddened but tried to remain hopeful of success in his mission. He hobbled down the road into the neighboring kingdom, and as he walked, he tripped over a log on the side of the road and almost fell over.

But the log shrieked and stood up. A log making sounds? Most strange! Indeed, it was not a log but a young man, looking hardly older than a boy, with a blank face and lank black hair. Some of Steven’s less open-hearted subjects would call this young man “dull-witted” or “foolish,” but the prince did not deign to use such terms.

Steven apologized most courteously, and the young man looked at him. For a split second his face looked handsome and his blue eyes looked lively and intelligent, and then they settled back into a vacant stare.

The lizard darted out of Steven’s breast pocket, and peered intently at the boy as it perched on his arm. It hissed happily.

_Here is someone else under a heavy spell_ , Steven thought, and he spoke to him in a gentle voice.

“Dear boy, would you like to travel with us? We are homeless wanderers in search of important things we’ve lost.”

The boy — or was he a young man? — shrugged and hesitated, but then nodded violently and did a little jig in a circle. The prince laughed and joined him in the dance, though Old Man Steven’s jig was a little more awkward and lumbering. Then Steven said, “Shall we go and find some breakfast? We have some berries from the woods, but a loaf of bread would not go amiss.” The boy nodded again, and they set off down the road toward the nearest village.

In the village they found a baker who sold them a loaf of bread for a few pennies. He was kind and friendly, but shook his head when Old Man Steven asked him if he’d seen either a tall older man with greying blond hair or a bent old man with a beard and a staff in these parts recently.

As they sat in the shade and ate their breakfast, the prince sang a quiet song about traveling to faraway lands and the lizard hissed along. The boy nodded his head and then stared very intently at a thistle. After a short rest, they got up and moved along down the road.

Thus did they travel for weeks, gathering wild fruit and herbs in the woods and stopping in villages along the way to barter for food and temporary shelter. Steven made and offered herbal tinctures and tonics to the villagers, and his companion was very good at cleaning and surprisingly adept at carving little wooden figures for the local children. Before they left these villages, Steven would always ask if anyone had seen the evil sorcerer. No one had.

And then one day in early August, they came to a village that seemed sadder and less prosperous than other villages. The people were more suspicious and less welcoming, and grudgingly gave the travelers bread out of their meager stores. Prince Steven warmly thanked the village baker for the bread, and then asked him if he’d seen the sorcerer. The baker turned white and drew in a sharp breath.

“No!” he said quickly. “There’s been no one like that here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for an important meeting with the butcher. Please be on your way.”

The prince was taken aback, but managed to remain calm and polite, thanked the baker again, and left the shop with his companions. The lizard hissed in Steven’s pocket and the boy groaned and did an agitated sort of skip.

“Yes, I think you’re right,” Steven said quietly. “He has been here. But none of these folk want to talk about it, and they’re afraid of us. Let us move along.”

So they walked through the village, the prince still smiling as pleasantly as he could at all the people who’d gathered to stare at them as they passed. An unfriendly murmur swelled behind them as they headed toward the woods on the other end of the town, and Steven sensed violence, the violence that comes out of fear. His companion shuffled calmly down the road but his eyes were round as saucers. They managed to make it to the forest, and no one followed them. Steven began to relax a bit.

But a mile down the road out of the village, he was startled out of his wits by a loud “PSSSST” and the sudden appearance of an old woman, as bent and wrinkled as himself, out of a thicket of trees. The travelers jumped back in surprise. The lizard chattered and hid under Steven’s collar. The old woman looked around to make sure no one else was about, then beckoned them to a clearing off the thoroughfare. The travelers cautiously followed her.

“My apologies for startling you,” said the old woman. “I had to wait til you were out of the village before approaching, as people wouldn’t like it if they saw me talking to you. The truth is, we’ve suffered a great loss and now all outsiders appear as threats.”

The woman went on to say that the village had been a prosperous one, with a good and benevolent mayor and his wife, Janet, who was a learned wise woman. Janet had been instrumental in protecting the village from thieves, in helping the villagers multiply their crops and livestock, and in helping women safely bring their babies into the world. A few weeks prior, an old man with a staff had been seen talking to the couple and walking with them toward the woods.

A few hours later, when they did not return, several residents (including the old woman) had gone in search of them. They found the mayor dead near an old tree, and no sign of his wife. Since then the village had no leadership and some of their crops and livestock had suddenly died. People believed they were under a curse.

“...and that’s why the townsfolk were so suspicious of you back there. They are worried that the old man or his cronies will come back and strengthen the curse. And you carry a strong air of enchantment about you.” The old woman looked critically at Old Man Steven and the boy, whose face looked blanker than ever. “You are enchanted, aren’t you?”

The prince paused and then slowly nodded his head. The boy looked at Steven, flailed his arms, and emitted a short chirp.

“We seek that same old man with the staff,” said Steven in a low tone, “to see if our curses can be undone.” The lizard peeked its reddish-brown head out from behind the prince’s collar and blinked its bright emerald eyes at the old lady.

“Ahhh,” the lady said upon seeing the lizard. “So I see.” She looked around again and reached into her apron pocket, pulling out a large and strange-looking object. It was a golden key with a long pin and a bow in the shape of a circle quartered by a cross. It glittered in the sunlight.

“I found this near our poor mayor that day,” the old woman said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I’d never seen it before, but I kept it and wondered what to do with it. And now I know,” she said, handing the key to Steven. “You should take it and go seek the old sorcerer - who knows? It could be useful.”

The prince was about to demure, but the lizard climbed out on his arm and hissed urgently. So Steven took the key and gave gracious thanks to the old lady. The boy turned in a circle, gave her a funny little bow, and passed a wooden carving of a horse to her. The old lady was tickled and gave her thanks in return. Then a twig cracking in the woods made her look up sharply, and she said a quick goodbye and disappeared among the trees.

“Well,” said Steven after a minute of silence. “That was...interesting.” He looked at the key and then at his companion. The boy bent his legs a few times and said, “Mmmm. Mmmm?” Steven held up the key between them by the pin and the dark-haired boy grabbed the bow. It hummed and seemed to shine more brightly.

They looked at each other in surprise, and for a second were revealed as their true selves: the prince with his golden hair, quicksilver cleverness, and courageous kindness; and the blank-faced boy as a young man with noble intelligence, breathtaking handsomeness, flowing black hair, and flashing clear blue-grey eyes. Then in the next moment they again appeared to be the old codger and the “dullard.”

Steven’s heart beat strong in his chest and he looked again at the boy. The boy’s eyes flitted across Steven’s lined face as he blew out his cheeks and made a raspberry sound. The prince laughed in relief and patted his companion’s shoulder as he put the key into his satchel. The lizard hissed happily and followed the key into the bag.

“I think we should keep this,” Steven said, still chuckling. “Let’s be on our way, my friend.” And they turned once more down the road.

*****

They continued to travel down the road, for the most part encountering kind, hospitable villagers. But two weeks later, they entered a small town that had the same air as the village where they had received the key - greyer, sadder, as if something vital had been removed. The baker gave them some oat cakes but when Steven asked about the sorcerer, the baker started as if he’d gotten an electric shock and hurried them out of his shop.

They left the town soon after that and as they did so, a few dozen townspeople came out to stare at them suspiciously. As they neared the edge of the town, Steven felt a shiver pass over him. He instinctively grabbed his lizard pendant with his right hand and raised his left as if in greeting. A split second later, three stones stopped in midair just behind them, hovered for an instant, and then fell with a thud to the ground.

The crowd gasped audibly and dispersed, muttering amongst themselves. The lizard hissed angrily from Steven’s breast pocket. Steven wished (not for the first time) that he wasn’t an old man right now and could walk faster to leave the angry crowd behind them. But they moved to exit the town as fast as they could. Steven was shaking with fear and the boy chattered agitatedly as he walked beside him.

About two miles outside the town, they heard the crack of a branch in the woods and an old man appeared through the trees. Prince Steven yelled aloud and the boy stepped in front of him as a shield, loudly making nonsense sounds. But it was not Lord Pierce, either as his true self or in his disguise — this old man was shorter, with sparse white hair on his head and twinkling dark eyes, and he carried no staff.

“I’m so sorry for scaring you,” he said gently. “But am I right in thinking you are looking for a sorcerer? Tall, commanding, with a staff?” Steven nodded, frowning. The old man told him they had seen someone of this description in their town two weeks earlier, looking for their town doctor. This doctor, Doctor Banner, was renowned throughout the region for his remedies, his wisdom, and his ability to heal the sick.

The sorcerer had entered the doctor’s house, and shortly after a giant green flash had been seen by passers-by. When the townspeople had gotten over their fear and dared to check on the doctor an hour later, the house was empty, both of people and of the doctor’s books. The old man had been among the people searching the premises, and while there was no sign of the doctor...

“I found this,” the old man said solemnly, looking around before pulling out a largish gold signet ring and putting it in Steven’s hand. The bezel was set with runes and three small emeralds in a triangle pattern adorned the face. It was a beautiful thing.

“I can’t take this,” Steven protested, his voice cracking. “This is a valuable treasure, and I have no money to pay for it. I can’t give you anything back.”

“The only thing I ask you in return,” said the old man “is that you seek this sorcerer and see if you can bring our doctor back. There is no one in our town with his skill, and many people have fallen ill since his disappearance. And who knows?” he added, his eyes twinkling once more. “This ring may help you in your quest to recover your own magic.”

“But I’m no magician—“ Prince Steven started to say, and the old man cut him off, saying, “I saw what you did back there with those stones. No ordinary person could do that.”

Steven looked down at his pendant, and at the key and the lizard in his pocket, and shrugged. The dark-haired boy mimicked Steven’s movements, put a cunningly carved little wooden sculpture of a cat in the old man’s hand, then stared intently a nearby tree for a few seconds. The old man smiled.

“How did you know I have a cat at home?” he said turning over the carving in delight. The boy repeated the shrug, then waved his arms around for a few seconds and threw his head back, emitting what might have been a “meow” from his mouth. The old man said his goodbyes, and after Steven had thanked him profusely, disappeared into the woods.

The prince stood looking after him for a minute, then turned his attention to the ring in his hand. He looked at it carefully for a minute before slowly pulling the key out of his satchel and holding them close together. The emeralds in the ring glowed with an inner light, and suddenly Steven and the his companion were bathed in a greenish glow.

As if a curtain had been torn away, they were again revealed as their true selves, this time for ten or fifteen seconds.

As Steven looked into the boy’s face, he saw that he was no longer a boy, but a beautiful young man whose piercing grey-blue eyes flashed as he beheld him...whose eyes seemed to say “I love you.” Steven felt that he could gladly drown in those eyes, that this man could command him to do anything, go anywhere, and he would obey without question.

But before either could speak, the light vanished and they reverted back to their enchanted forms. Prince Steven clutched his chest in an attempt to calm himself. The boy timidly reached out and laid his hand on Steven’s shoulder, his eyes wide and serious. Then he put his hands up, tilted his head back, and yodeled to the sky.

Steven laughed for a full minute and squeezed the boy’s hand.

“Well,” he said, gasping for breath. “That was enlightening.” The lizard emitted a chirp and skittered around in his pocket. Steven put the ring on his thumb and said, “Shall we go on?” The boy reached out and grabbed his hand and they continued down the road.

*****

A week later as they journeyed, the terrain turned less friendly and the road grew rougher. It was still summer, and yet in this land the sunshine shone through the dense trees with difficulty and the air was kissed with chill. There were no towns about and the surrounding woods, while thickly set, did not yield the same fruits and herbs as elsewhere.

The boy grew gaunter and the shadows under his eyes darkened. Prince Steven tried to give him most of the remaining food, but the boy would not let him, insisting on sharing what little they had in his own inimitable way. Steven began to worry that if they did not find Lord Pierce and undo their enchantments soon, they would starve out here in the wilderness.

One day as they trudged slowly through the landscape, Steven felt a presentment of danger approaching. He hardly knew why - the forest was ominous and unyielding, but there was no sign of any other life form in the immediate vicinity. But he was justified in his fears a minute or two later when the lizard hissed in his pocket and the boy grimaced and moaned under his breath.

Suddenly from out of the woods flew a huge raven, squawking loudly and heading straight for them as if to attack. Old Man Steven stepped out in front of the boy and barely had time to lift up his arms to fend off the raven’s talons. But Steven had forgotten that he wore the magic ring on his thumb and just as the giant bird was about to tear into him, the ring glowed brightly and emitted a pulse of light.

The bird squawked again, this time in fear, and pulled up short. And before Steven and the boy could do anything, it was flying back into the woods. The two men looked at each other in amazement and worry, and then the lizard peered out of the prince’s pocket and hissed. On the ground nearby lay a large black feather.

Steven picked it up and looked at it, then looked at the boy.

“I think we should keep it,” he said. “A talisman.” The boy grinned, blew air out of his cheeks, and lifted his elbows a few times. As they prepared to journey on, the lizard crawled out of Steven’s pocket and hissed as loudly as it had ever done. The prince pulled it into his hand and said, “What now, old friend?” It hissed again...

...and was answered by a similar hiss nearby. Something glinted on one of the trees and then another lizard was bolting down the trunk and toward them. This one had burnished golden scales and bright blue eyes — Steven’s mother Queen Sarah would have recognized it immediately. The two lizards met on the ground and circled round and round each other, flicking their tongues and hissing in delight.

“Is this who you were looking for?” Steven asked, kneeling down. His red lizard friend hissed in assent. “Oh joy!”

Steven turned to the boy. “My friend has been looking for this...other lizard for a long time, and now they are reunited. But both are enchanted.” And he sighed.

The boy patted Steven comfortingly on the back and then knelt down to say hello to the lizards. They ran up his arm and settled on his shoulder. The prince thought his chest would burst to see such a heartwarming sight. But then he was reminded that they needed to move on.

He gestured to the boy that they should keep walking, but the golden lizard hissed and scampered down the boy’s leg to the ground and a short way into the woods, indicating that they should follow it. So they did.

Just a little way into the woods stood a very short, very strange tree that looked similar to the one Steven’s mother had eaten from twenty years earlier, only with different-colored berries. Prince Steven hesitated to eat them, but the golden lizard climbed up the trunk and hissed insistently. Steven picked a berry off the branch and ate it, and immediately felt a bit braver and a bit less hungry.

The lizard hissed some more, and Steven and the boy ate a number of berries off the tree. When they were finished they felt like they’d just eaten a delicious meal and could face any task or conquer any danger. They smiled at each other, and Steven looked at the golden lizard and said, “Many thanks, friend.” It looked at him and hissed, and quick as a wink grabbed two remaining berries off the tree and skittered down to the ground to share one with its mate. They all returned to the road and continued on through the brooding forest.

*****

The next day they came to an even bleaker part of the forest where nothing grew and the skeletal branches of the dead trees hung over them like a warning. A dank mist rose from the ground around them, casting a further pall on the travelers and distorting the landscape. It was impossible to judge distances in that setting, so they were all surprised when a huge, black gate loomed up in front of them. It was locked. The boy yelped and the two lizards hissed uneasily in Steven’s pocket.

_This is the place,_ thought Prince Steven. _This is where Lord Pierce lives._

Acting on instinct, Steven took the golden key out of his pocket and fitted it into the lock on the gate. The gate buzzed and shook, but would not open. He thought for a moment, then threaded the raven feather through the quartered cross at the top of the key. The gate sprang open but some sort of alarm sounded off on the other side and suddenly an entire conspiracy of ravens could be heard coming toward them.

“What do we do?” Steven turned to the boy with a panicked face. He remembered the talons on the one giant raven from the day before and quailed at the thought of 20 or 30 of them flying in to rip the travelers to shreds.

The boy’s eyes were as huge as saucers and he whined for a few seconds before grabbing the key from Steven and beckoning him to follow behind. As Steven did so the unkindness of ravens appeared through the trees, flying straight toward the pair.

The boy lifted the key with the feather in it toward the giant birds, and steadfastly walked forward. The ravens shrieked in rage and frustration, but they could not approach the travelers and hovered around them at a distance of eight or nine feet.

The noise from the birds was deafening and the prince and the boy could hardly hear themselves think, but they kept moving forward down the path. After twenty minutes, a tall door loomed up in front of them in the mist and they could barely make out the outlines of a gloomy, decrepit castle around it. Steven briefly wondered how they would be able to unlock the door if they needed the key to continue warding off the raven horde.

But he needn’t have worried. While the boy held the key backward to stave off the birds, Steven touched the door with his hand and it swung inward silently. He pulled the boy in through the door and shut it, and immediately the noise outside ceased.

Inside the castle it was deadly quiet, and the air of enchantment and menace was twenty times stronger inside than out. The daylight penetrated feebly through the filthy windows, but darkness covered much of the entryway and no light could be seen up the stairway that extended off in front of them or through the open doorways to either side.

Steven and the boy looked at each other, their ears still ringing from the raven attack and their heads spinning with fright, and they clung together for a minute. Standing together in that ominous foyer, they knew that they had come to the end of their quest, that they had to confront the Lord Pierce, an evil sorcerer, somewhere in this castle, and that their courage had deserted them.

From Steve’s breast pocket, the lizards hissed and then they crawled up his tunic between the two men. The prince and the boy felt a warmth penetrate their chests and flood their bodies, and they started to feel a bit braver and a bit stronger. After a few minutes, they looked at each other and smiled.

“Are you alright?” Steven whispered to the boy. The boy hesitated, then nodded, his eyes big, holding up the key with the feather that he still clutched tightly in his hand. Steven smiled faintly at him.

“OK, now we’ve got to find Lord Pierce,” he said with a confidence he didn’t quite feel. The boy nodded again, but his eyes were filled with apprehension. Steven looked around the entryway, trying to determine which way they should go in search of their enemy. But there was no noise anywhere, no movement, and his instinct told him nothing.

After a minute, the golden lizard hissed and climbed quickly down the prince’s leg to the floor, heading off down the right-hand hallway off the foyer. The red lizard did the same, and Steven and the boy followed them hesitantly at a distance.

At the end of the hall were two large doors opening onto a huge, empty ballroom with cathedral-size high ceilings. As in the rest of the castle, very little light came through the shrouded and dirty windows, even though these were several stories tall.

The lizards surged into the cavernous space and disappeared into the gloom. Steven and the boy peered into the room and, seeing no one, cautiously entered it to have a look around. It appeared empty but for a number of grey-white statues on pedestals that dotted the edges of the ballroom floor. They were halfway into the large room when they heard a noise near the entrance.

“And who have we here?” asked Lord Pierce in a soft but by no means friendly voice. He walked slowly toward them and at his snap, some dim lights came on around the sides of the room. He appeared as himself, not in his disguise as an old, bearded man — tall, forbidding, now clad in a long robe of innumerable colors that flashed faintly as they picked up the lights.

Steven plucked up his courage and, rising up to his full height (which was still not very tall as a bent old man), he yelled at the top of his lungs, “Release us from these enchantments at once!” Unfortunately, it came out as a croak instead of a scream.

Pierce smiled an evil smile. “Oh, it’s you, Your Highness,” he said in a mocking voice. The boy chirped angrily and the sorcerer looked at him. “And you’ve found this sorry excuse for a wizard, this weak-willed spell-caster who only wanted to help people and refused to join his skills with mine so we could dominate all the kingdoms. How charming.” His expression darkened.

“And how convenient for me to kill you both,” Pierce continued in the same smooth voice with a new note of menace woven in. “I spared your lives when I took your magic, but I can’t allow this intrusion into my home. And I will keep your magic and all the other magic I can get my hands on so that soon all the lands will be mine.”

Pierce’s voice ended in a snarl. He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a wand, pointing it at the pair.

Both Steven and the boy reacted at the same time, lifting up their arms to shield themselves from whatever was coming. The sorcerer’s wand poured out a blackish purple light at them, which felt cold as death.

As the pair’s hands came together, the cross threaded with the feather and the ring joined to create a green light, even stronger than the light the ring had made by itself so many days earlier. This light grew and grew until it surrounded them, protecting them from Lord Pierce’s death spell.

“No!” Pierce cried and muttered some foul-sounding words. Instantly the death spell strengthened and began to penetrate the green light around Steven and the boy. The prince brought up his other hand in an effort to ward it off, as he had done with the stones thrown at them in that second unfriendly village where they’d been given the ring, but it was no use. The death spell had reached them and Steven could feel icy fingers start to grip around his heart.

Prince Steven looked at the boy and saw the color in his face ebbing away, and realized the same thing was happening to him. As the spell worsened, Steven could feel himself return to his youth, and he saw the boy’s face mature into the beautiful man with piercing slate-blue eyes he’d seen before when he put the ring on, and yet it was no good.

They were disenchanted, but they were dying.

They started to sink to the ground and Steven clutched at his heart and grabbed the lizard pendant in the process...

...and from behind them on the other side of the enormous room came a sound of hissing. The hissing grew louder and louder until it filled the entire room and then came a loud CRACK and the hissing turned into roaring.

Lord Pierce shouted aloud and turned his wand away from the couple. They fell on their knees, holding each other and breathing hard, and watched in wonder as the golden lizard, now returned to its natural form as a dragon, rose in the air and came flying in at the sorcerer. It released a jet of flame from its mouth that incinerated Pierce’s wand. The evil sorcerer screamed in frustration and lifted his arms to curse the dragon...

...and with a roar Steven’s friend the red lizard, now also again a dragon, flew in behind Pierce and breathed heavy fire at him. Its golden mate joined in, and soon the evil magician was wreathed in flame. He tried yelling curses and invoking spells but it was no use, and with a final burst from the dragons’ mouths his screams died away and all that was left was a pile of ash.

After that, it seemed for Prince Steven an endless minute in which time was suspended and all the sound had gone out of the world, leaving him in a bubble of heavy silence.

He saw the dragons land near them and stand, side by side, their flanks heaving with effort.

He saw and felt the dark-haired enchanter help him up to standing and then kneel at his feet, kissing his hands and looking up at him with adoration.

He felt tears falling from the corners of his eyes.

And out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the statues on the edge of the room turn from marble to flesh and look around in confusion.

But he heard none of it.

None of it, until the enchanter stood up, touched Steven’s face with his hand, and leaned in to tenderly kiss his lips.

As his love kissed him, Steven heard a humming sound and felt a warmth and realized that a red light was emitting from his chest. It was not from the golden key or the emerald ring or even the lizard pendant; it was from within him. A red light issued from the enchanter’s chest in response, increasing in intensity until they were completely surrounded by the magical glow.

And they looked at each other, and fully knew each other, and pledged themselves to each other in that moment.

“James,” whispered Steven, for that was the enchanter’s name.

“Steven,” James responded, his eyes shining with love, clasping Steven’s hands in his.

As the light died away, James kissed Steven again, and Steven heard the dragons hissing nearby in approval. He looked at them and laughed through his tears, and spoke to the reddish-brown dragon in its sibilant tongue, and it answered.

And the two men broke apart to hug the two dragons as the people who had been statues climbed down off their stands and shyly approached them in confusion and wonder.

*****

The people who had been statues were of course those whom Lord Pierce had kidnapped when he’d stolen their magic, among them the mayor’s wife, Janet, from the first sad town Steven and James had visited, and the town doctor, Doctor Banner, from the second. To these Steven and James returned their respective treasures, the key and emerald ring, with many thanks.

“Thank you for saving us,” Janet said in response. She scanned Steven up and down in wonder. “Your magic is so strong.”

“But I have no magic!” Prince Steven protested (again), and all who stood by laughed to hear it, including his beloved.

“You say this, dearheart, but we do not believe it,” James said, looking at him with sparkling eyes. “For it was you who got us here, you who gathered the magic items, you who gave us courage, you who released the dragons from their spells.” The two giant lizards hissed and nodded vigorously. Steven just shook his head and stared, red-faced, at his feet.

And later, as they said farewell to the others and prepared to return to Steven’s kingdom with the dragons, James said softly in Steven’s ear, “And it was you who captured my heart, from the beginning. Even though we have been unenchanted, I remain enchanted by you and bound to you.” He knelt again at Steven’s feet.

“Will you have me?” he said, bowing his head. Steven smiled and his chest felt warm, even though this time no light emitted from it.

“Yes,” he said, lifting his love to standing. And they kissed again.

Great was the wonder and joy in Prince Steven’s kingdom when he returned home with his beloved enchanter on the backs of not one but two dragons. Queen Sarah and King Joseph had searched for their son for months without success and had all but given up hope when he flew out of the sky to greet them. They fell instantly in love with James and gave the prince their blessing to marry him.

At one point during their reunion, the queen caught the eye of the golden dragon, and it bowed to her and winked one sapphire eye. Sarah was inwardly startled, but she kept her queenly poise, nodded her head back, and smiled over their shared secret.

And so Prince Steven and James were married at twilight the next evening in Steven’s parents’ castle. As they joined hands to cement their bond, the red light again glowed between them. When the ceremony ended, church bells rang out across the land and fireworks lit the sky in celebration. The dragons flew to and fro over the palace roaring their own words of joy.

The couple ruled the kingdom wisely after Prince Steven’s parents died and used their magic for good among their people, bringing prosperity to their subjects. They made peace with all the nearby lands, including the sad towns they’d visited which were now happy again, as well as the desolate manor ruled by Lord Pierce, which was restored to its rightful (and previously enchanted) prince and returned to its former fruitful condition.

Steven’s and James’ kinship with the dragons was lifelong, and it was not uncommon to see the great lizards flying over the horizon to meet their friends at the castle. One can truly say that (as many fairy tales end) they lived happily ever after.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> This story originally appeared as an epilogue in [ another fic](%E2%80%9C) I wrote a while back, in which the main characters produce this fairy tale as a children’s play at Lincoln Center in New York. I edited it and changed parts of the story and some characters to make it a standalone Stucky piece. This is an original fairy tale, but you may notice a number of references to others of the genre as well as to a few well-known fantasy novels. 
> 
> In case you were wondering why Clint and Natasha are tagged but don’t show up in the tale, they do show up, but look a bit different — a little larger and more prone to breathe fire — than their usual human selves. ;-)


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